Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126070
; I III -= ~ t \D rO'l ...... ~ \D C\I ~ II) ..0 0 ~ u 0- By Gary Van V oorhis "Yeaaaah! Number One! Yeaaaah!" Jay Springsteen was ' screaming at the top of his lungs thrusting .a fist into the air. Sweat and cha mpagne in term ingled an d ro lled off his fore head. A few minutes later a new H arl e y -Davidson Sp ortster was rolled o nto the "in ner's stand. It wa s a bonus fo r winning th e ch ampionship. Sp r inger had don e it. He had clinc he d th e ti tle . Nu m be r On e. The Grand Natio na l Ch am pio nship. Later , slumped in a chai r wi th a we t cl oth to wipe h is face , The Ch amp re laxed. "I'm glad it 's o ver be cause it has be en a lon g seaso n. n Scene. Pand emonium surro unds th e winner's circle as j ay clim bs up to acce pt the cha mpagne, the trop hy and th e Grand National Championsh ip. He is crackling with elec tricity and still going at f u ll throt tl e even th ough t he eh eck ere d f lag has f allen and th e longest ten months of his yo ung (at 19. ja y is " the yo ungest Grand Nat ional Champion ever) lif e is no "! ov er. Th e cork pops o n the cham pagne. but it does no t sp ray the cro w d so every one in the w inner's circle gets a bath. So m eon e in the crowd ho llers to j ay about him no t being old enough to dri nk in Calif ornia and he hollers back that h e do esn't really care and that t his is th e best tasting cha mpagn e ever. "I we n t out and rode m y race. Sure I wanted to win because th at 's wh y I race, but if I didn't I was n ' t goi ng to be disappointed. I knew I only had to fin ish seventh to tak e the championsh ip, but that was n 't th e way I wa n te d to take th e title. It didn 't rna tter that G ary go t p oints at th e road ra ce b ecaus e I knew I co uld do it no matter what he did." S cene. Th e guy was standing near turn fo ur we aving a little on his fee t giving th e impressio n that h e might possibl y have been celebrating a littl e to o mu ch. Upo n closer inspection on e co uld notice that h is ey es were closed and tha t he was sof tly saying over and over again o ne phrase: " C'm on ja y . c 'mo n j ay. " He rep eated it as If chanting a good luck charm alth o ugh afraid t o look at the race as th ough it m if?ht break th e. spell. "Once I got into com bat in th e Nat ional I forgot all ab out my wr ist and hand botheri ng m e. It h u rt s like h ec k right now an d th e muscl es are so tense tha t l ean ' t really hold it still. The cras h really kn ock ed me silly . I was seei ng do uble fo r a while afterwards an d it shook me up so that my stomach neve r really got to feeling better. I guess I'll hurt tomorrow, bu t right now I'm so jazzed that nothing is going to bother me." S c en e . E v eryon e c a ll s jay Springsteen's mother Icy . That's her nic k name and that's what she answers to. Onc e jay started th e National Icy , by ch oice, did no t watch. If th ere was anyone in th e Spr ingsteen pits who was visibly nervous it was she. When it was o ver there we re tears of jo y in h er eyes. "I wasn 't worried before the race, I've had such a good y ear and every th ing has run so smoothly that I knew that my t un e r Bill Werner h ad everything togeth er . He's helped me so m uch t h is season that it's hard to know how to th ank him . A g ood par t of th e ch amp io nship belongs to him." Scen e. Th e halfwa y flags are o ut and A lex j orgenson is mo vin~ up on jay. A hu ndred fee t fro m the fo urt h turn Bill Werner is standi ng w ith Cork y Keen er an d th ey are in tently watc hing ja y. A co uple of laps more and th e racing is getting so close that in ches separat e the pair as th ey ex it turn f our. Werner has his hands o n his head read y t o pull his hair o ut if anything goe s wrong. Th e tension mo unts as ja y loses th e lead and go es divin g right back to get it again. Th e wh ite fl ag comes ou t and, with a half mile to go. Werner kn ows jay has it. Th e che ck ers. Wern er and Keen er who op and ho ller wit h fist s raised in th e air. Off t o the side Harley -Dauidso n racing boss Dick O 'Brien has a smile of sat isfac tio n that say s volumes. "I gues s I re ally h aven ' t ac tually thought too much abo u t being th e Grand National Champion b eca use it's "Such a b ig honor and responsibility. It wil l probably take a couple of days fo r the whole thing to sink in. Heck, I'm so hap py that I really can't think of any thing to say. What is there to. say? This has got to be the greatest feeling in the world. How .can you explairi that." Scen e. . Like a k ing h olding court, jay is sitting in a lawn chair answering qu es tions, signing autograp hs, re.ceiving kis ses fr om frien dly female fans and b e i ng congratulated by a non ·stop· thro ng of well wishers. On h is lap is a plaq ue with th e Harley -Davidson eagle ins ig n ia of t he racing team. Th e inscrip tion reads: "j ay Springsteen No. 1. " Strangely, no on e had tho ugh t to bring Jay. a fr esh set of Numb er On e plates - f or the celebra tion. A fan or perhaps som eone in th e Springst ee« pits has attached a hastil y made cardboard Number On e to th e fro nt plate on Jay 's spare bik e. Hast y or not , it looks at home. The 10 ,000 plus fans that turned out to see the showdown at Ascot did not go hom e without som eth ing to talk about for whether or not they were Springsteen fans before the event, the majority were when it was over. Jay 's title was done in true champ ionsh ip fashi o n and in typical Springer st yle with flash, finesse and talent. The 1976 version of J ay Springsteen is but a trickle from a deep well of what should p rove .to be immense talent. Springer will be around for a long tim e. He has served notice to Ga ry Scott and Kenny Rob erts that 19 77 will be a very tough year. .. 33